Hot Topics:

Poll: Drug use by Mass. youth exceeds nation

Sentinel & Enterprise

Updated:
02/14/2014 07:18:58 AM EST

By Andy Metzger

State House News Service

BOSTON -- Massachusetts youth use illicit drugs more than their counterparts across the country, according to a federal report, which found Bay Staters between the ages of 12 and 17 also do not perceive great risk in use of marijuana and weekly drinking.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Behavioral Health Barometer found 7.4 of Massachusetts youth smoked cigarettes in 2011 to 2012, a slightly higher rate than the country and down from earlier years.

The report found 8.3 percent of state youth between the ages of 12 and 17 experienced a major depressive episode within the past year, a slightly lower rate than the rest of the country. About 57 percent of those individuals received treatment, the report found.

The Association for Behavioral Healthcare, which promotes community-based mental health and addiction treatment services, highlighted the report, noting the lack of treatment revealed by the survey.

"Only 42.6 percent of the approximately 37,000 youths . . . living in Massachusetts who had at least one major depressive episode within the year prior to being surveyed had any treatment for that episode," the organization wrote in an overview of the report.

The percentage of Massachusetts adults who experienced suicidal thoughts between 2011 and 2012 was 3.9 percent, about the same as the national average.

Advertisement

A little less than half - 49 percent - of Massachusetts adults with any mental illness received treatment.

The report, the first of its kind, used data from surveys sponsored by SAMHSA, including the National Survey on Drug Use and Health and the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services, SAMHSA Administrator Pamela Hyde wrote in a foreword.

Massachusetts youth reported using illicit drugs within the past month at a 12.3 percent rate, below the national rate of 9.8 percent. The state's youth illicit drug use rate is higher than Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and New York. Youth in Rhode Island and Vermont used illicit drugs at rates over 15 percent.

Among 12 to 17-year-olds in Massachusetts, 14.1 years was the average age of first using marijuana, 13.3 was the average age of first smoking a cigarette, and 13.5 was the average age of first drinking alcohol. Non-medical use of psychotherapeutics, such as pain relievers, stimulants or sedatives, was the earliest on average, occurring at 13.3 years.

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin devoted his State of the State address to the state's problem with heroin or opioids. Vermont has seen a 260 percent increase in people receiving heroin treatment since 2000.

Vermont's number of people enrolled in substance use treatment who received methadone has declined from 2008 to 2012, while the number in Massachusetts has increased from 9,606 in 2008 to 15,504 in 2012.

Massachusetts voters decriminalized possession of up to an ounce of marijuana in 2008, and activists want to put full legalization before voters in 2016, following in the steps of Colorado and Washington.

About 80 percent of Massachusetts youth perceived no great risk of smoking marijuana once a month in 2012, up from 75.6 percent in 2008, and several points above the national average. More Bay State youth believe in the safety of monthly marijuana than their counterparts in Colorado and Washington.

A little more than 65 percent of Bay Staters age 12 to 17 perceived no great risk in drinking five or more alcoholic beverages once or twice a week, up from the national rate of 59.8 percent.

Among people who are 12 years or older in Massachusetts, 434,000, or 7.8 percent of the age-group, are dependent on or have misused alcohol, which is higher than the national average of 6.6 percent.

Welcome to your discussion forum: Sign in with a Disqus account or your social networking account for your comment to be posted immediately, provided it meets the guidelines. (READ HOW.)
Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion of The Sentinel and Enterprise. So keep it civil.